Published By: Bedford Square Publishers
Pages: 304
Released On: 18/01/2024
In the slums of 19th-century New York. A tattooed mystic fights for her life. Her survival hangs on the turn of a tarot card.
Powerful, intoxicating and full of suspense. The Knowing is a darkly spellbinding novel about a girl fighting for her survival in the decaying criminal underworlds. It is a hard-hitting story of love, obsession and betrayal.
Whilst working as a living canvas for an abusive tattoo artist in the slums of 19th-century New York, Flora meets Minnie, an enigmatic circus performer who offers her love and refuge in an opulent townhouse that is home to the menacing and predatory Mr Chester Merton. Flora earns her keep reading tarot cards for his guests whilst struggling to harness her gift, the Knowing – an ability to summon the dead. Caught in a dark love triangle between Minnie and Chester, Flora begins to unravel the secrets inside their house. Then at her first public séance in the infamous cathouse Hotel du Woods, Flora hears the spirit of a murdered boy prostitute and exposes his killer, setting off a train of events that leaves her fighting for her life.
The Knowing is a stunning debut inspired by real historical characters including Maud Wagner, one of the first known female tattoo artists, New York gang the Dead Rabbits, and characters from PT Barnum’s circus in the 1800s.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Bedford Square Publishers for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
***Contains Minor Character Spoilers***
They weren’t kidding when they said this was a serious book; it is full-on and unapologetic from the very start to the very end.
As a woman with tattoos (23 and current count), I find it fascinating to read – be it fictional or not – about a relatively recent time where tattooed women was seen as a fantastical thing, something to belong in a “freak show”.
These strong women in an age where they were owned and controlled by men is fascinating to read. They really draw you in, and whilst it may not always be the best life, you find yourself wanting to be part of their cool gang.
It doesn’t matter how many times I read about “women’s fever” or “hysteria”, it angers me still. If it was only contained in a novel, that would be fine, but this happened not that long ago. That a woman clearly had to be insane if she was anything but subservient. And I think Emma has depicted it brutally and wonderfully.
There’s many, many characters, but I’d say you’ve got four main players:
Your protagonist is Flora. She is a tattooed woman, controlled by men, living at the very bottom of society. Bizarrely, considering she was the main character, I wasn’t all that fond of her to start with. I couldn’t decide if she was the victim or a master manipulator, or if she’d brought everything on herself. Buts he soon captured my attention and I really willed her on on her journey.
You then have Minnie. She comes in as the saviour but for me, she wasn’t all she appears to be. She feels very controlling, very manipulative, in the guise of offering a better life, but too wrapped up in her own dark to really offer Flora the light.
Then in comes Chester, who has an unusual relationship with Minnie. He is who she rescues Flora for, but he’s no better than what she had, really. He’s playing them both, and they’re playing him. He’s a despicable character but a wonderful creation to work off the two women.
And then my favourite: Abernathy. He’s the ambiguous man. He’s silent and scarred, always in the background, and you wonder whether he is on their side or not. He’s the most interesting for me as he’s a closed book, and there’s so much to unravel with him.
I can’t say whether it was what I was expecting or not, because I’m not completely sure what I was expecting. I suppose I was expecting magic, the supernatural, and a bit of fun, like the circus (although I don’t particularly like the circus). But it has so much more. It’s rude and crude and explicit, violent and angry, hungry and uncomfortable, friendly and hatred, realistic and fantastical and thrilling, it’s show and fast, quiet and loud. It’s got everything one may want from a good book. It’s a completely different reading experience than I thought I’d get but that’s not a bad thing.
I will admit it took me a little while to lose myself in it, but I think that’s because it was so full on so quickly, that I had to get my head into it. But once you’ve found your space in the story, you’re not allowed to leave. It’s disturbing, but you’re unable to tear yourself away.
Don’t read it if you’re after a fun, light-hearted, warming, easy-to-read, comforting book for a cold winter’s night. This is a book to focus on, to steal your anger and your emotions. It’s a book you’ll hate and love at the same time.
How to explain the ending without spoilers…as it went on, as we got closer to the endgame, the last quarter maybe, it took a shift in tone. I can’t fully explain it without spoiling it, and I obviously don’t want to do that. But it felt really different, opposite and yet clearly of the same hand. It’s a shift in feeling, in emotion, and desire. It felt like a sudden change but at the same time, obvious, like you’ve been aware of its gradual appearance the whole time.
My one tiny little critique if I had one was that I couldn’t fit it into a genre. I like my books to be able to fit neatly in a box; I like to be able to tell someone whether it’s a fantasy or a thriller or a romance (I know this isn’t an issue for everyone). But this has a lot. It’s supernatural, and it’s a thriller, and it’s historical, and there’s romance. So for me, I’d have liked it to be a little neater in that sense, but it didn’t have a negative effect on the story itself, that was well formed, well written, well executed, and really rather fabulous.
I have read a lot of fantastic debuts over the last couple of years and this is one to add to the 2024 list already.
There is beauty everywhere you look in this book. Even in the darkest passages, Emma has found wonder.
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